Quote Originally Posted by Paul View Post
but it's clear that i've already been stereotyped as some sort of forum n00b who is wrong no matter what, so it's cool guys keep it up whatever.
Actually, what is clear is that you're seeking to find an excuse aside from your own behavior for your treatment.

it seems to me you are obsessed with squaresoft's vision, and your own, or other people's interpretation or enjoyment from the games comes secondary.
And it seems to me that you really smegging enjoy making straw men of my position.

i find it amusing that you accuse me of being over emotional,
Another really valid point and i'm impressed by your thinking.. I did not say you were over emotional, I said you were attempting to employ emotional appeals.

yet you yourself are completely cold. the only reason we are even debating in this thread, and that this thread has reached page 5, is because (as has already been said) FF7 at one time, meant an awful lot to an awful lot of people.
Which is completely irrelevant to whether or not it has been retconned and whether or not those retcons stand as canon.
And to be frank, most of the reason why this thread reached 5 pages is because Charcoal insisted on engaging in a debate without comprehending the terms of the debate.

now you can say "square decided to change all that, and make it canon" and yes, you're right, it's canon (i admitted that a few pages ago, but i was still getting the "OMG IST' CAONN!!!1111" replies for a while...). but what is and isn't canon, to me, isn't as important as people's experiences and enjoyment of the game.
Then you shouldn't be in this debate in the first place. You should be in a thread about people's experiences of the game, instead.

squaresoft have the authority to do whatever they want with this, but Crystal is right. at the end of the day it's the opinion of the fans (either way), that really matters. not squaresoft. without the fans, there is no squaresoft and there is no final fantasy. they pay the money, and ultimately it is their experience of the game that is the only rewarding thing to be taken from this whole videogame industry.
Yes, but it is not the fans who make the story. If it was, we're have the Aerith revivication version of FF7. We'd have the Jenova possessed Sephy version of FF7.
Also, you are employing a rather massive logical disconnect in the above.